Messages - mpietropaoli

Great, thanks forth replies all. Honestly, I only really perceive it when it's first poured. Then as it warms and degasses a bit,this beer is a dream. Probably need to do some live tasting with some good fellow judges to see what I'm perceiving...

I am a relatively new BJCP judge, and have judged about a half dozen competitions. I have had a few instances where I have perceived DMS when the other judges haven't.

We recently carbed up 3 versions of a 1.080 or so RIS (naked, oak-aged, bourbon oak aged) and I perceive DMS in all of them, particularly when its served on the cold side. Once its warmed a bit, I get an amazing symphony of bready malt, baker's chocolate, light roast, warming, and some hop flavor.

I honestly have no idea how this beer could have had DMS. 100 minute boil, in-line therminator, cold pitched US-05, fermented at 66, temp raised to 68 after a week, then 70 for the remainder. We used magnum to bitter to about 40 IBU, then got the remaining IBU's (total of 80, calculated) from Green Bullet hops, which I'm told are somewhat like Fuggles or EKG, especially when used late. I am confident in our cleanliness, hot and cold-side processes. We ferment in a 1/2 bbl stainless steel conical, in a dual-stage temp controlled fridge.

This could just simply be from the hops. Trying to find the recipe, and will post it. I think we may have used Columbus for bittering as opposed to Magnum...another reason to use magnum for hoppy beers!

Though this beer was a gargantuan PITA to lauter (and it was BIAB, with 2# of rice hulls!), and I had an accident or two that resulted in some of it being spilled on the garage floor (and much of it not making it into the boil), this turned out to be a fantastic and unique beer. Fermented at 62*, raised up to 66 on day 4, then finished at 70 with 2 vials of WLP300 (then used the cake to make a 1/2 bbl weizenbock).

Really prominent rich earthiness of rye, rich melanoidins (single decoction and about 15% munich malt), with some prominent clove and a subtle banana ester. Kind of like a whole grain banana nut bread muffin. The other thing I couldn't believe was the mouthfeel of it. It almost has a cascade effect like a nitro-served stout when poured. Not sure how often I will brew this, but its a great starter for what will likely be an annual weizenbock brew (though next time I'm doing a beta-glucan rest!).

This is a new one for me....posted this over on NB as well, but thought I'd try here.

Brewed up our clone of Pliny, with a whole mess of hops. Have brewed this before on this system, and it came out basically exactly like Pliny. Amazing beer.

Of course, this time, the cheeba monkeys at our local HBS/weed-growing hydroponics store didn't have S-05 OR WLP001, so we went with BRY-97. I grew up a starter in an APA, and we pitched at a rate assuming 60% viability, since the starter was such a hoppy beer.

Have the clone kegged up and carbed, and it has a great hoppy aroma and flavor, right up until the middle of the taste when this weird tangy/not-quite-tart (maybe slightly astringent? I'm not really the best at ID'ing that) flavor takes over. I have tasted lacto (both intentional and unintentional), and I really don't think this is lacto. This beer was fermented in a 14 gallon stainless steel conical that is scrubbed hard after each use and impeccably sanitized.

After fermenting/racking the starter APA (which was decanted off of hop matter before pitching the first pitch of this yeast), the harvested (2nd gen) yeast sat in a sanitized container in the fridge for about a week.

Also, the IIPA was dry-hopped, yeast dropped, cold-crashed, and gelatined before kegging. Pretty clear for a hoppy beer. One possibility is we pitched too much of the BRY-97 cake into the beer.

I know some british ale yeasts have a slight tanginess to them. Could this be a yeast issue?

More importantly, are there any additions I can make to tame this down a bit? I tried adding about a 1/4 tsp of gypsum to a pint, which did nothing. A 1/4 tsp of baking soda seemed to help a bit, but I feel like that might destroy any hop flavor/aroma.

Whether its my mistake or not, I probably won't be using this yeast again as it doesn't floc at all. Oh, and also, raised by Mr. Brungard on NB, we don't usually treat our muni water at all aside from charcoal filter and campden.

1 I really do like the hefe phenolics, but find I like more malt character.

2 I think rogues "roggenbier" sucks for that reason. I am guessing they use pacman for it, and it is nice and malty, but I think some hefe character or other phenolics would make that beer infinitely better. I will admit I don't really like many of rogues beers other than their stouts.

Going to get brewing! What's the better yeast to get moderate-high hefe character to balance the earthy rye, if I am going to ferment in the low 60's?

Can't find much on this style, or homebrewed versions of it. I typically like all beer styles, but am not a huge fan of hefes...I think it is because I find them lacking in malt character. Voila roggenbier. Plus I would like to grow up a hefe cake to brew a weizen bock on our 1/2 bbl system. Was going to do jamils recipe fermented nice and low, and 62.

Anyone have any thoughts n the style, tasting notes, or recipe tweaks? I have read the bjcp guideline, but would like to hear from some brewers

I prefer to add honey to beers 2-3 days after fermentation has been well under way. There is already alcohol present which will deter any infection from wild yeast or bacteria, and still plenty of yeast rarin' to go to ferment fresh (and simpler) sugars, as long as your chosen yeast is tolerant of higher alcohol %.

No problems after many years of brewing with honey this way. I use the least-processed honey I can find (i.e. not super-market pasteurized honey). Local beekeepers' honey is the best and most aromatic, but at least in my neck of the woods, the only local beekeeper honey that is available is usually wildflower. For varietal honey, I have to drive a bit, or order online.

+1. I boil about 1 quart of water per pound of honey, let the water cool, and add the honey to the water once its cooled to around 180, cover, place in icebath, then add to the fermenter.

The main benefit is you are ensuring your yeast aren't lazy by just going for the simple sugars first (like those contained in honey). They are forced to work on the longer chain sugars in your wort, then as they slow down, you basically give them TV Dinners to finish off.

Made a Biere de Mars-ish beer a few months back, bottle conditioned this one (bottled 2 weeks ago, so definitely still young for the gravity), but there is a distinct thin/cidery taste. The honey (meadowfoam) was added at the last 3rd of fermentation or so. Given the attenuation on this beast (3711; basically about 94% attenuation!), it would up with way more alcohol than planned (8.81% as opposed to 7.3% or so)...I'm thinking this should be a longer-term cellarer, as the booze is a bit evident as well. Stepped up starter of 3711 based on yeastcalc.com. Lagered for 4 weeks after primary.

Will the cideryness dissipate? I don't think it is acetaldehyde. Biere de Mars16-D Bière de GardeAuthor: MCPDate: 2/25/2013

I agree its a well-made beer, and certainly if having it in 1976 when Cascade was only a dish detergent to most, I would have probably been blown away to know beer can taste like that.

As a fellow appreciator of session beers, I do love me a well-balanced but hoppy APA. However, I find this beer really pithy and lacking in any malt character to balance the hops. In fact, I actually dumped about a 1/2 pint of it last night (my 2nd last of the six pack I bought to try it).

Not meaning to take anything away from the original brewer, as this an Anchor are in a weird way responsible for this forum existing, but just not my bag (baby).

went with a mix of the two. soaked .4oz of chamomile and the zest of a navel and a blood orange in vodka for a few hours. Then read Denny's affirmation of my tincture issue and placed a sanitized muslin bag lining my favorite pint glass, poured the whole sloppy mess into there, pulled the bag out, dumped the vodka (which smelled more like vodka than the adjuncts...again only a couple hours), tied off the bag, re-spray sanitized, and dropped the whole thing into my fermenter at 75* or so. Since I'm not trying to turn this beer around for this weekend anymore, I have a little more time to play with it. Maybe if I leave it until Sunday or so, it will have picked up the aroma I'm looking for.